BrianHelge.com

Drinking Boulevard in Boston

Mon, 6 Feb 2012 16:32:14 -0500

This past Saturday was our third straight year going to the Extreme Beer Fest in Boston and Boulevard was there to grace us with their presence.

I struck up a conversation with one of their employees and told him I was originally from Omaha and basically "grew up" on their beer. After a few minutes of Midwest hospitality, he let me know that they've started distributing to Springfield, MA. What does this mean? The next time I take/pick up Christi from the airport, I'll drive the extra 15 minutes into Mass. and score some Boulevard!

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Boosting confidence in my college football picks

Mon, 9 Jan 2012 16:58:05 -0500

Not much went right in picking bowl games this year, except for the ones that I put the most confidence in. I can't ever remember a year where I got my top eleven confidence picks right in the same year.

Why chop the photo at 25? Well, let's just say there's a lot more red than green below it ...

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Turning wine into chalk

Mon, 19 Dec 2011 11:37:38 -0500

Ever since we owned our first house in Omaha, we've always had this wine picture up in either our living room or kitchen. We're really not sure why ... as the two of us aren't that fond of it. Don't get me wrong, it's a nice picture and all, but it's just not our style and doesn't go with the rest of our decor.

So instead of just tossing it away, selling it on Craigslist or crumbling it up for kindling, we decided to reuse it as a chalkboard. The first step was taping off the beveled edges to get ready to paint (for some reason, painting with this thing on the wall seemed to be the most logical choice) ...

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First game without Joe Pa

Tue, 15 Nov 2011 20:27:26 -0500

I had my parents put in for some Penn State tickets in February. Obviously you can't predict what is going to happen nine months later, but we went to Happy Valley during a historic time.

In the wake of the Sandusky rape allegations, we end up witnessing the first game without Paterno as the head coach of Penn State since 1965. Pretty much a once-in-a-generation game that we ended up going to ...

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Nine straight days without power

Tue, 8 Nov 2011 10:42:21 -0500

Nine days. We went nine straight days without having electricity. Finally yesterday, sometime around 3pm, CL&P finally made their way over to our house and gave us power again.

For those reading this that don't live in Connecticut, it was absolutely ridiculous how long it took CL&P to restore power to everyone. Sure, there was a freak snowstorm in October that weighted down the leaves on everyone's trees, but regardless, you need to have a contingency plan in place for when storms happen. The fact that millions of people were without power for around a week is absurd ...

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Tree on Wire

Mon, 31 Oct 2011 11:01:00 -0500

Saturday was absolutely crazy. We heard that Connecticut was expecting 8-12 inches of snow in October(!) and at first Christi and I thought it would be cool to have some snow this early. Then we learned a very important lesson about how things work: Leaves need to fall off trees before snow can fall.

Our once mighty oak in the front yard had all of its branches just bending over and swooping to the ground. Then it happened, they started cracking under the weight of the heavy snow and crashing to the ground ...

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A night with Chris Rock and Dave Chappelle

Sat, 22 Oct 2011 14:10:06 -0500

Some people know that I absolutely love comedians. For those that don't, when I was in high school, I used to stay at home Friday nights (when everyone else was out partying) just so I could watch Comedy Central's Friday Night Stand Up. What's a comedy lover to do when DVR didn't exist back then?

So when Dheerja and I went to a conference in NYC last year, she told me the best place to go was the Comedy Cellar. We went for a show while we were in town and it was absolutely awesome. The best part is that there are always tales about big name comedians dropped in announced to try out new bits for their next show ...

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The quest for 120' from Dogfish Head

Fri, 14 Oct 2011 09:44:42 -0500

I feel like Captain Ahab ... I found my great white whale.

I want to say that it's been at least a year and a half since I've tasted the hoppiest beer on the planet. When Brew Masters debuted last November, that really didn't help anything either as everyone now wanted to get their hands on some 120. Great for DFH, bad for me and the rest of the fans out there ...

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11 years of dating ...

Sat, 8 Oct 2011 16:58:58 -0500

... we still can't keep our eyes off of each other.

Not that we hold much precedence to this anniversary since we have a much better one to look forward to every year, but it's cool to say that we've both been together for more than one third of our lives ...

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It begins

Sat, 1 Oct 2011 08:03:54 -0500

It's finally time .. ...

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The greatest night of baseball ... ever

Wed, 28 Sep 2011 23:58:49 -0500

Are you kidding me?

Seriously, are you kidding? Never in my life would I think to write that a day that the Braves lose one of the largest September playoff leads in MLB history would turn out to be the greatest day of baseball that I will probably ever witness in my life ...

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The pride of Seward, Nebraska

Mon, 12 Sep 2011 16:36:24 -0500

This is a historic time for my hometown. I'm pretty sure, unofficially, of course, that Sam Koch has become the first person from Seward, Nebraska to score a point in the NFL. The Ravens ran a fake PAT and he just walked it in (click on the image to view the video).

Greg Welch is smiling somewhere right now ... you just know he is ...

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Damage assessment from Hurricane Irene

Sun, 28 Aug 2011 16:16:15 -0500

Hurricane Irene blew through New England, labeled as the storm of the century, and only our tree felt the damage. After preparing way too much for something that has been hyped up here for a few weeks, we have a few small branches on the ground and one large limb about six feet long.

We're glad that our house wasn't damaged, or flooded, but our large tree in the front yard shed some unnecessary weight. We're assuming our tree will call State Farm in the morning to see if it's covered, and if not, will be expecting a check from FEMA in the next 6-8 weeks ...

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2nd Annual Big Red Invitational

Sat, 27 Aug 2011 21:32:09 -0500

Hurricane Irene did all she could to disrupt the second year of the golf tournament, but 13 out of the 20 original participants braved the conditions and golfed through the rain for 18 holes.

However, 18 holes wasn't enough to decide a champion as Ben and I were tied with Will and Mukul at that point. We played the 1st hole again as a playoff (without Mukul, who went to hockey) and as we battled through the downpour and the darkness, we stood there staring at Will having a 3' putt to win it all ... and it rimmed out. Personally, I think he was just being nice to us and missed it on purpose. With that, we decided to call it a draw, and now Will and I can say we won the very tournament that we put on every year ...

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Another weekend on the Cape

Wed, 24 Aug 2011 10:08:46 -0500

This last weekend we headed up to the Cape to spend a nice relaxing weekend doing nothing but lounging around at the beach and playing some putt-putt golf (which Scott amazing hit three consecutive hole-in-one's ... and still finished dead last).

As with tradition (well, this only being our second year going with the Connor's), we fired up a delicious surf and turf dinner. Christi and I brought up some beef that we brought back from Nebraska in June and we got some fresh scallops and crab meat from a local place only a few minutes away. Probably one of the best homemade dinners I've had in quite some time ...

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Awesome Prince Amukamara coverage sign

Thu, 28 Jul 2011 15:25:02 -0500

Just saw this when looking through the Nebraska media guide for the Big Ten media days. Very creative sign(s) that I figured I'd share.

It's only 33 days until the first game. That's not too early to get pumped up, right?

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We've become elitists

Mon, 18 Jul 2011 10:41:13 -0500

A few weeks ago, Ben saw that there was a polo match in Newport, RI for only $10 per person. Basically, bring your own food/drinks and have a good time.

Since the match didn't start until later in the evening, we hung out on the cliff walk and at the beach for a little bit. After staring at some mansions that were about the size of my home town, it was time to go watch the horses ...

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Reverse psychology at its finest

Wed, 29 Jun 2011 10:25:35 -0500

Who doesn't think watching Tosh.0 for 30 minutes a week doesn't pay off?

Enjoy:

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Building a raised garden: my step-by-step guide

Mon, 30 May 2011 14:10:50 -0500

I've strung together other how to guides on fish taping your wall and renovating your bath (when you have no clue what you're doing), so here's one more:

First, you need to start off with a massive dirt pile that your wife absolutely hates. Why? Because when you show the final before and after pics right next to each other, it looks that much better. Personally, the dirt you accumulate from building your own patio works best ...

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Unbelievable seats at Yankee Stadium

Mon, 16 May 2011 10:12:07 -0500

A big thanks to a few ESPN3 guys who didn't want to sit in the rain as I was able to experience baseball at a whole different level on Sunday night.

It's one thing to attend a Red Sox//Yankees game, but it's another to see the game from ten rows up behind home plate ...

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